At three-month-old Hela Bannish is dropped in her father and the rest of his bandmate's dressing room with a note done in a beautiful, well-practiced script:
"Loki, there is something wrong with our baby and no one is listening. I fear she is dying...
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Loki was heading down the gangway after packing up his kit. Darius and Lucifer were having beers and he walked into the changing room to finally grab a shower and change. It was a straight eight-hour shot home from Los Angeles and he locked the door and walked into the bathroom, not noticing anything different... Maybe thirty minutes later, he was in the shower when he thought he'd heard the door.
He wrapped in a towel and came out, slinging his long red hair up in another towel he looked around nothing had changed until he saw the basket on his dressing table, and he walked over, there was a baby, from all the pink he gathered a girl and he started very carefully digging around to come up with the envelope.
**Loki, there is something wrong with our baby. No one will believe me. I have run out of money. Out of patience. Out of understanding. Please save her life. I named her Hela after Loki's daughter in all those Norse tales you used to tell me about the God of Mischief. She was born with your hair. Please love her. She deserves it. She didn't ask to be brought into this world. Or for us as parents. Especially me. But I know you. I know your clean. I know you are sober. I know you. They are always interviewing you for it. She's two and a half months old... Take care of her. Thank you. **
There was no signature and Loki growled as he fumbled around everything, four diaper bags, a small box of diapers, tons of onesies, formula, bottles, of all types, cereal at her age? No... too young. He tossed that over his shoulder as he watched the tiny human start to squirm, and his hands stilled over her form before he started untucking her to reveal a skinny little one with all arms and legs. She was dressed in a little pink onesie, and he scooped her up to pat her back. He had nieces he could do this but what came out of her was not any cry he'd ever heard from an infant in his life. A toddler with a broken bone yes. But not an infant at three months old... but she was still so tiny and then all hell broke loose. She screamed bloody murder in his ear as she tensed up, her hands in his hair as tears streaked down her little cheeks.
That was unadulterated pain, and he could hear Darius at the door. "Loki? Loki... let me in now... What did you get yourself into?" Loki rushed to the door as Darius came in and Hela kept right up screaming. Darius sighed, "We need to get her to a doctor... Loki. That's pain. That's god-awful pain." Darius took Hela and rubbed her back and belly. "It's okay little one."
"I have all her legalities... Let's get her home. We can re-"
"Angie's here with the truck you can ride with us. Michael is with grandma so your little one can ride in his car seat. Lokus? How old is she? What a month?"
"Almost three if the note is being honest. But she's tiny. We need to get her to a hospital now. I just got a really bad feeling. Get her to Tucson and go straight to TMC. No going home, will Angie be okay with that?"
Angie took the little girl and was checking her out. "Loki this baby is starving to death when did she last eat?"
"I just tried to feed her Angie, I'm wearing it. It came out just like it went in, only green."
Angie gave Hela her binky and that eventually calmed her enough that she slept so they could get her in the truck. "It's eight hours home. On the way, I'll call my doc and get them on board so they'll get their teams on board. She's gonna be okay Loki. She locked the base of the seat into the car seat base in the truck while Darius got their few bags into the truck and all of Hela's things, "I'm also calling My Brother, the PI."
"Y-you mean Caius? She needs a family! I'm family. He'll take her! I came out of the system..." Loki tells him.
"You came out of that system because you were adopted you and your 4 brothers because you were all rough and tough and showed potential to still be saved and now look at you KID you have a baby. You barely have an apartment and food with the money you squirrel on all of these trips out with the band. You're good. Yes, one day you'll see the world and you'll prove us all wrong. But for now, you need to do more work at the ranch anyhow. Move back out to one of the trailers. You can pick. But it needs to be able to be good for you and this little one. She'll need her room now. So two rooms and a separate bathroom."
Darius had been lecturing and Loki was more intent on his little one as Angie had already merged them onto the freeway and headed them toward home. They'd hit Yuma in time for breakfast if he didn't have to clean the car seat before then but Angie had them switch to clear Pedialyte before they'd cleared San Diego.
Loki was just sitting in the back seat quietly humming to Hela and she was watching him as they slipped through the starlit night. Darius would reach back and nudge him when he'd fall asleep, "Lokus. You gotta try and stay awake at least until Yuma. After we eat I'll let you nap up here while I sit back there with her okay?" Loki would nod and rub the bridge of his nose as he looked between Darius and Angie. "Thank you, guys." But at that point, they were past the military base land and a road stop was coming up just as Hela started screaming again Loki started to panic and he finally got her binky and she took it and started sucking at it furiously. "Oh, Hela sweetie it's gonna be okay..."
